captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i am judy woodruff. gwen ifill is away. on the newshour tonight, wisconsin's primary sets a potential turning point in the presidential race, as both party's frontrunners face a loss. also ahead this wednesday, a dangerous rise in diabetes-- the world health organization announces the number of adult cases quadrupled globally in less than 40 years. and, with this year's predicted strongest el niño on record, scientists increase their efforts to better understand the weather pattern when forecasts predict the worst. >> when these events impose themselves on the climate system, everybody on the planet feels it and the droughts, floods are spectacular and

they're global. ♪ i'm proud to be an okie from muskogee. >> woodruff: and remembering merle haggard, one of country music's original outlaws, who died today at 79. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it's on to new york in the presidential campaign, after wisconsin shook up the race. republican ted cruz and democrat bernie sanders won big in the badger state on tuesday. the candidates they are chasing-- donald trump and hillary clinton-- hope for better in new york, which is home to both. we will have a full report, after the news summary. in the day's other news, pharmaceutical giant pfizer and its irish rival allergan called off a record merger agreement. the deal would have saved pfizer hundreds of millions of dollars

in taxes by moving its corporate address overseas. but on monday, the obama administration imposed rules to block such "tax inversions." at the white house today, spokesman josh earnest rejected criticism from the drug companies. >> most corporate leaders understand that a strong, american economy is good for their business. and the concern that we have is with the leaders of some corporations that are looking to take the best of america without making a contribution to the success of our country. and that is wrong. >> woodruff: the merger would have been worth $160 billion. former coal executive don blankenship was sentenced to a year in federal prison for a mine disaster that killed 29 people. blankenship was c.e.o. of massey energy, which owned the upper big branch mine in west virginia.

his sentencing today came after a federal jury convicted him of conspiracy to violate safety standards. he was acquitted of more serious charges. new signs are emerging that the flow of migrants from turkey to the greek islands is finally slowing. the turkish coast guard reports that it stopped 68 people trying to cross the aegean sea today. that is down sharply from 225 yesterday. turkey's prime minister says it shows a deal with the european union to deport illegal migrants is having an effect. more world leaders found themselves on the defensive today over offshore investments. they were detailed this week in a massive leak of documents-- the so-called "panama papers." british prime minister david cameron said today that his family will not benefit from off-shore funds or trusts in the future.

and in tokyo, ukraine's president petro poroshenko said that his offshore holdings were a blind trust that he created, once he took office. >> the only purpose of that was a transparent, separation of business of the ukrainian president from any political influence. this is absolutely normal procedure and i think this is the main difference from the naming all the political figures in this panama list. >> woodruff: also today, the documents leak led police in switzerland to raid the headquarters of european soccer's governing body. they are focused on a tv contract that could be linked to a bribery scandal. governments around the world carried out more executions last year than any time since 1990. "amnesty international" reports more than 1,600 people were put to death in 2015. almost 90% of the executions came in three countries: iran,

saudi arabia and pakistan. there were 28 executions in the u.s., the lowest number since 1991. amnesty says it's believed that china executes thousands of people every year, but won't confirm any figures. back in this country, investment brokers are going to have to meet a higher standard when they advise people on retirement. labor department rules issued today say advisers act as "fiduciaries," legally required to put a client's best interest above all else. they also have to disclose fees they are paid to recommend a given investment. the rules will be phased in next year. on wall street, stocks broke out of a two-day slump thanks to gains in the health care and energy sectors. the dow jones industrial average surged 112 points to close at 17,716. the nasdaq rose 76 points, and the s&p 500 added 21. and, the university of connecticut celebrated today,

after the women's basketball team won their fourth straight national championship. the huskies routed syracuse last night, 82 to 51. it marked the 11th championship overall for coach geno auriemma, the most in college basketball history. still to come on the newshour: all eyes on new york as the presidential frontrunners suffer setbacks in wisconsin; the underlying cause of a global spike in diabetes, and much more. >> woodruff: already, the 2016 spotlight has shifted to the next two major campaign battlegrounds: new york and pennsylvania. ted cruz, fresh off his win in wisconsin's republican primary,

paid a visit today to the big apple. there, he was forced to defend his criticism earlier in this campaign of frontrunner donald trump's "new york values." cruz pointed to what one hispanic pastor told him today about what's wrong about new york politics, and the values that drive them. >> we fight them everyday, we fight them. they're the values that mayor bill de blasio-- liberal democrat-- one of the first things he did was try to shut down the charter schools in harlem, because he is captive to the union bosses who control him, so one of his first actions was to try to throw young african-american out of the schols. those are the values of the liberal democrats that have been hammering the people of this

state for years. >> woodruff: for his part, trump has a scheduled rally this evening in long island, while ohio governor john kasich-- a distant third in the g.o.p. delegate race-- was off the trail today. on the democratic side, bernie sanders is moving on to pennsylvania. with his wisconsin win last night under his belt. but the democratic frontrunner once again took aim at sanders' ability to turn his rhetoric into reality. here's what clinton said today at an "a.f.l.c.i.o." convention in philadelphia. >> my opponent in the democratic party and i share many of the same progressive goals. i am concerned that some of his ideas just won't work because the numbers just don't add up. others won't even pass congress, or they rely on republican governors, suddenly having a conversion experience and becoming progressive. while in a number of important areas, he doesn't have a plan at all. >> woodruff: to dig into last night's results in wisconsin and tell us what it could mean for the road ahead, we are joined by ron brownstein, who writes for "the atlantic" and "national

journal," specializing in the demographics of the nation's politics; and dante chinni, director of the american communities project, a county- by-county look at the u.s. electorate. he is also a politics reporter for the "wall street journal." and welcome you both to the program. >> thank you. >> woodruff: good to see you. let's talk a little bit about breaking down tho vote yesterday, ron, in wisconsin. what did you see from what voters did, how they voted, that tells us anything about what's happening? >> the short version, judy, is that it reconfirmed the patterns we've seen on the democratic side and it broke the patterns we've seen on the republican side. on the democratic side we saw bernie sanders strong where he has been strong, dominant among young people, and surprisingly competitive among working class white voters in the midwest. he's now won them in every state, except for ohio, where the two of them ran even. so he has shown that he can continue to be very strong in states that are predominantly white and shares a vote.

on the republican side, the patterns broke substantially. ted cruz did better among voters, particularly those who are not evangelicals, than he's done before. the question will be whether that was a one-time anomaly or a new pattern in the race? >> woodruff: what do you see, daunt awhen you look at wisconsin? >> the one thing that struck me on the republican side in particular was it really did seem we've been waiting a long time to see who the establishment candidate would be on the republican side. we had marco rubio. he went way wae. we had jeb bush. we even had scott walker. last night, it looked like the establishment said okay, we're going nawl on ted cruz, we're going, which is remarkable. to say a year ago that ted cruz would become the candidate of the establishment. >> and it's 2:00 a.m. and closing time at the bar. the republican establishment-- >> woodruff: you're look at a lot of endorsements and at this point it looks like that's where they're coalescing. we have some graphics and let's talk about what you've seen in

the primaries so far which you referred to. it has to do with on the republican side, who is winning white college grads and non-college grads. >> look, what donald trump has done is fracture the republican party along a new line of division. in the past, republican races have been defined mostly by ideology and religious affiliation. you had one candidate who was more moderate, somewhat conservative voters, and also non-evangelicals, another candidate who tends to be more conservatives and evangelicals. trump has replaced that with a new divide along the lines of education. if you look at that map, he has won voters who are white college graduates in only eight of the 21 states. in the cumulative exit polls he's carried about a third of them. he has been dominant, judy, among the non-college white voters in the primaries. >> woodruff: the next graphic. >> he's won them in 17 of the first 20 states. and one of the things that was significant last night-- he's won about 45% of them. in most states the pattern has been trump loses the college voters usually pretty narrowly,

and wins the noncollege intriertz big margins. last night in wisconsin we saw something very different. we saw him lose the college voters by a very big margin, almost 20 points. and he also lost the noncollege white voters. that is one of the key questions-- is that, again, a one-time confluence of events that makes wisconsin unique or is this a new pattern. by the way, new polling out tonight in new york suggests it may have been a one-time event arct least compared to his home state. it's got to be proven that cruz can sustain the advantages we saw in wisconsin. but there's no question trump has upended the usual order in the republican primary by building the blue collar coalition that transcends the usual divide. >> woodruff: we know voters were bomb barlded with this campaign the last few weeks and the new york voters are about to experience the same thing. dante, you have been looking at something related but not exactly. you have been looking at how suburban voters are looking at this election. what you have found? and we have a graphic on this, too. >> the one thing i've noticed looking at the data throughout

the election, even going in, republicans need to win the suburbs to win the general election. it's very important to them. they've been losing in the suburbs fair long time. in the last election, say, in 2008-- 2012-- sorry-- barack obama won these suburban places by about 16 points in the breakdown they used for the american communities project. i looked at head-to-head data between hillary clinton and donald trump, she's winning in those places by 32 points, double the advantage. what we're seeing in the primaries is trump cannot win in these places and it revealed itself again last night. you look at that map. where does he win? he wins milwaukee, he wins in dane county, and he wins up a little bit around green baker appleton. when you get up in the rural areas that's correct all trump. >> woodruff: but there are suburbs and there are suburbs. are you talking inner suburbs? we know today in the city there's sprawl. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: and there are places where suburbs become

almost rural. >> absolutely, and ex-ushes, and ex-urban areas and those places very good for republicans in the past. when you look at the breakdown, the head to head with hillary clinton, he still holds the republican edge in those places but he's way down. he doesn't have the edge that, say, mitt romney had. >> there has been some commentary, even from trump himself, that he is winning because he is transforming the republican lexingtonerate. that's not really happening. if you look at the share of the vote cast by republicans, it is basically the same as it was in 2012. there has not been this big upsurge of democrats and independents and trump has won republicans in every state he has won except missouri. what he has done, jeweledy, is taken the existing coalition and divided it in a new way. he achieved what somebody like pat buchanan and rick santorum tried and could not. really for the first time in a divided primary, the blue collar side is driving the result, and the white collar side is the fragmented one.

>> woodruff: quickly, we want to turn to the democrats here because, ron, you have also looked at that and frankly how it is divided by race, how hillary clinton and bernie sanders have divided the white voters. >> sanders started as the classic basically white collar, and young people. he's doing incredibly well with young people, 70% overall. but he has expanded beyond that. he is now competitive among the blue collar whites. he has won all white voters in every state outside of the south except for ohio and iowa. she has dominated among white voters in the expowght that's allowed him to compete far beyond the wine track states like oregon or vermont and new hampshire. what he hasn't done yet, though, judy is cross the second hill, which is the diversity of the democratic party, and the challenge that creates for him, on the democratic side every large state is diverse, and she has won every large state, except for michigan. >> woodruff: and african american and hispanic voters. asian voters. >> until he breaks that pattern, that is his task in the remaining contest-- new york,

pennsylvania, california, and new jersey. >> the one thing you also see with bernie sanders that is interesting, he's winning rural places. there are aspects to bernie. we think about him as he's the college kids, crazy professor sanders gvote for him. that's not everything that's going on with him. he has aspects to him-- he's a prairie populist in a lot of ways. he's winning kansas, rural parts of wisconsin, nebraska. he wins the pacific northwest but he's winning rural whites ws that live in the old prairie populist areas. >> woodruff: but he still is, ron, a significant number of delegation behind. >> he's a good candidate for kentucky, west virginia, south dacoat aoregon. but on the democratic side, the big states that awarmed the big trove of delegate delegates arel diverse. sanders' campaign recognizes-- the hill he has to get over to truly challenge her is crack the diversity of the democratic party. without that he can't win in

california or new jersey. >> woodruff: we are going to have to leave it there. it is all fascinating, and new york two weeks from yesterday. ron brownstein, dante chinni, we thank you both. >> thank you for having us. >> woodruff: and now, an alarming new report about the dramatic growth of diabetes across the globe. the world health organization said today that an estimated 422 million people are now suffering from this chronic, lifelong disease. william brangham has more. >> brangham: the w.h.o's report tracked the global rise of diabetes over the last 40 years. and it showed a quadrupling of the number of cases worldwide. it's now estimated that 8.5% of adults in the world have the disease, and the costs are tremendous: an estimated 3.7 million deaths every year are linked to diabetes and higher- than-normal blood sugar levels.

the fastest growth of the disease has been in africa, the middle east and asia. joining me now is dr. etienne krug; he's the world health organization's point person for dealing with diseases like diabetes. dr. krug, these are genuinely shock numbers. how do you explain this incredible growth of diabetes? >> well, we are seeing a steady growth now for several decades which largely, particularly for people with type 2 diabetes, is linked to changes in the way we eat and changes in our levels of physical activity. we are seeing more and more unhealthy eating and a reduction in physical activity, which contributes both to overweight, which in turn is a big cause of type 2 diabetes. >> brangham: we tend to think of diabetes as a disease that afflicts wellier nations but your report indicates poor countries have a bigger and bigger burden. >> for a time, diabetes was considered the disease of the rich countries.

this is not the case anymore, and the report clearly shows rates are higher in lower and middle-income countries than the high-income countries. it is a total reverse of the situation, what it was. and the increase is steeper in those countries as well. >> brangham: the health impacts of diabetes, as we described are, really quite striking. i'm wondering, do you have a sense of the economic cost of this disease? >> the total cost of treating diabetes is more than $827 billion every year. so it's a very high number, and that's only the direct cost. it's not even talking about lost productivity, for example. >> brangham: diabetes requires lifetime, costly medical care. do you have any sense of whether these nations have the medical infrastructure to deal with these patients over the rest of their lives? >> diabetes is a disease that's there to stay for the life of an individual, and it does require a lot of different responses. it's important to mention that a lot of it does not have to be

costly. just through healthier eating and more physical activity, type 2 diabetes can be reduced quite a bit. and it is an issue that's important, also, for type 1 diabetes. but then we need to have access to diagnostics and to treatment, and today, 23% of the lower income countries say they don't have a good, widespread access to insulin, for example, which is a life-saving medicine for people with diabetes. and that means we need to work on supply chains, making sure those medicines reach even the poorest countries and the poorest corners of those countries as well as on the prices because we know that some types of insulin, for example, are too expensive, and we have to make sure that even poorest people who need them just as much as the rich ones have access to them. >> brangham: let's talk about possible remedies. what is it that can be done? is it education? we've seen some faltering attempt here's in the u.s. to try to tax sugary beverages. mexico has done that.

the u.k. is trying that. is that a possible solution? >> it is a combination of efforts that are needed. clearly all of vus to make an effort in terms of healthier eating and more physical activity, but that is not going to be enough. and particularly wheny we look at poorest countries, people don't have access to the information, but also don't always have the choice to eat healthily or to do more physical activity. so the governments have an important role to play in terms of providing information, but also making sure healthier choices are available. and that can be done through legislation in terms of content of food, through taxation, as you have mentioned. these are important measures that can work. and then we need to also think about our urban planning, for example for example. one of the causes to overweight is urbanization. people cannot walk and cycle safely anymore to work or to school. and making sure our cities are healthy and provide opportunities for safe walking,

cycling, physical activity in general is extremely important. >> brangham: all right dr. etienne krug of the world health organization, thanks very much. >> sure. thanks very much for having us and supporting our work. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: drones, satellites and balloons, the tools to predicting el niño; two views on whether there is hope for israeli-palestinian peace; plus, the urban workers excluded from india's economic prosperity. but first, this has been a stronger season than usual for the weather pattern known as el niño, a pattern that affects weather all around the planet, and scientists and forecasters have repeatedly warned about its impact this year. but they still want to learn more about it to better gauge what it might do.

science correspondent miles o'brien went with them to chart that. >> reporter: it's another beautiful day in sunny hawaii. a gulfstream g4 jet spools up its engines and taxis for departure. >> eight right, lineup checklist is complete. >> reporter: the plane is the ultimate in business jet luxury-- in this case, minus the luxury. nick-named "gonzo", it is owned and operated by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration-- n.o.a.a.-- and the business is scientific research on one of the most significant weather patterns on the planet, el niño. they make a beeline from good weather to bad. >> positive rate. gear up, gear up. heading and altitude? verified. >> reporter: the cabin is filled with researchers using sophisticated equipment. they are part of a scientific campaign on multiple fronts - deploying satellites, drones, planes, balloons, surface ships

and buoys-- all focused on the largest el niño in nearly 20 years. >> el niños come small, medium, large and what i'm fond of calling is godzilla. >> reporter: veteran nasa climatologist bill patzert has studied el niño his entire career. he watches the weather from a perch in space via the jet propulsion lab in southern california. launched in january, the jason-3 oceanography satellite is the fourth in a series nasa and the european space agency have deployed to monitor el niño and sea level rise since the early nineties. >> when these events impose themselves on the climate system, everybody on the planet feels it and the droughts, floods are spectacular and they're global. >> reporter: here's what makes an el niño tick: normally, tradewinds blow from the east, westward across the pacific ocean. this creates a mound of water

near indonesia that is as much as ten degrees warmer and 1.5 feet higher than the water off the coast of ecuador. during an el niño year, the tradewinds either stop, or blow in the opposite direction, transporting the mound of warm water to the east. >> so it's a tremendous redistribution of heat. and so when this happens, all the pieces on the weather board are rearranged. >> reporter: the unusually warm water adds heat and moisture to the air above it and it rises, causing rain-- often torrential- - on the west coast of the united states and in central and south america. at the other side of the pacific, a colder than normal ocean leads to serious droughts in southeast asia, india and africa. it's the kind of weather no one can ignore. >> el niño is threatening parts of the west this morning with more dangerous weather. heavy rain and high winds will take aim at california. >> reporter: strong el niño winds bring colder temperatures and more rain across the

southern u.s., this year triggering flooding and mudslides in texas, louisiana and tennessee. and it flattens out the northern jetstream, redirecting the flow of cold polar air - resulting in a milder winter for much of the country. scientists are getting better at predicting an el niño-- they foresaw this one six months in advance-- but there is still a lot that they don't know. >> this is not rocket science. it's much, much more difficult than rocket science. >> reporter: chris fairall is a n.o.a.a. physicist. he says one of the key challenges is data-- or more accurately, the absence of it. el niño forms along the equator in the pacific, as remote as any place on the planet. >> it's a gigantic data void, there's a huge area with no islands, no land stations, no radio sondes. and it's extremely active. >> reporter: that is what makes

this flight-- one of 22-- so crucial. they are now flying 45,000 feet above the equator. >> i think the model's wrong, which is part of the mission here. >> reporter: randy dole is a senior climate and weather scientist with n.o.a.a. he and the team are hoovering data in the place where they have the least of it, hoping to fix what is broken in their model. >> some of the errors were larger than we might have even anticipated. and this affects not just the weather models but it affects models that are used to project u.s. climate on a seasonal scale or even globally on the long- term. >> reporter: as they fly, they gather data left and right, aiming a side-scanning radar at nearby clouds to determine how much moisture they contain. >> three, two, one, drop. >> reporter: and they look out below as well, releasing a few dozen dropsondes, which transmit real time snapshots of temperature, humidity, wind

speed and direction as they fall toward the sea. dr. dole is also very interested in the connection between el niño and climate change. >> there are several papers that suggest that some of the events like the climate we're seeing may become more frequent-- that is extreme warm events-- in the future. this kind of mission, can ultimately provide data that will help to improve the models needed to understand that question. >> reporter: meanwhile, in pearl harbor, the crew of a n.o.a.a. research vessel, the "ron brown," readies to set sail on a month-long voyage into el niño waters. >> bridge copies all hands aboard. ship to colors. hundred r.p.m.s on the port. >> reporter: lieutenant adrienne hopper, is an operations officer in n.o.a.a.'s commissioned corps. >> increase speed to 400 r.p.m.s.

thrusters all ahead 400. >> reporter: she and her crew will be maintaining several buoys along the equator called the tropical atmospheric ocean array. the t.a.o. buoys were deployed to better understand el niño by gathering data just above and below the surface, and beaming it to forecasters via satellite. >> this is a temperature and conductivity probe. this is one of the first probes that's immediately below the surface of the mooring collecting temperature and conductivity data. they go down about every 20 to 25 meters between the surface down to about 500 meters. >> reporter: when you think about el niño, this is kind of where the rubber meets the road, as it were, right? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it really is a key point to know what's going on underwater and the atmosphere immediately surrounding it. >> together. >> reporter: they hope to add one more piece to the puzzle on this voyage, launching weather balloons every three hours-- >> okay, one, two, three, release. >> reporter: --designed to gather the same kind of data as those dropsondes released from 45,000 feet.

>> it was in the clouds roughly right in this period here. what goes up apparently must go down in this racket. after deploying 27 dropsondes-- >> landing gear is down. three green confirmed? >> confirmed. >> reporter: --gonzo comes down eight hours after leaving honolulu. the next day dr. dole debriefed the flight for me. >> so this is the actual flight plan track as in red. these are dropsonde points in the plan. >> reporter: on the left is the forecast model-- what was predicted-- and on the right is what we saw during the flight. >> we want to see if in fact this model is right in predicting that we should have seen more activity on this side even than we saw in the eastern portion where there was existing activity already. so was it going to develop here or not? three or four model cycles it said it was. so, let's test it. so based on this flight, how would you grade this model?

>> not very good. i'm a hard grader, but i won't give you a letter grade on it, but let's just say it didn't happen. my sense is that they should be in good shape if they turn, it looks like, at about one north instead of at the equator. >> reporter: they are seizing the scientific moment, hoping this is a perfect opportunity to make the model smarter. it can't stop el niño's conveyor belt of moisture, but it might give us better warning. miles o'brien, the pbs newshour, honolulu. >> woodruff: now, the next conversation in our occasional series on the israeli- palestinian conflict that we are calling "the long divide." tonight, whether there is reason to be hopeful that the peace process could ever bear fruit.

and to john yang. >> reporter:inar we have tonight two men we've hosted on the newshour many times over the years on this subject. hisham helham is a columnist for the news channel in washington department and a correspondent. and david makovsky was a senior policy adviser to secretary of state john keri's peace team for israeli-palestinian negotiations in 2013 to 2014 and a long-serving fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. to begin this series, judy woodruff spoke with tom friedman of the "new york times." and here's what he had to say about the peace process. >> it's been dead for a while. i just called it by its real name. it's clear to me, judy, both sides have conspired. this is like "murder on the orient express" there were so many stab wounds in the body it's hard to tell which one was the fatal blow. >> reporter: david, we quickly

heard from you in disagreement. explain why you disagree with tom friedman's analysis. >> i think tom made a lot of good points but in the united states we tried to hit the home run ball three times, bill clinton, condoleezza rice, and the effort was a part of with secretary keri 2013-2014. and i think what we see despite the best efforts of the united states these guys cannot do the home run ball. we don't have time to explain all the reasons, but the point is i think we have to be more mod nest our objectives and try to hit singles and doubles because whether it's a lack of leadership-- and by the way, even the great leaders in the middle east deferred these issues. there's a reason why these issues-- the can's been kicked down the road-- and we have disbelieving publics. they might say, "i'm for a two-state solution but i don't think the other guy is." and the middle east is in unprecedented turmoil which the

newshour has been chronicling since the arab spring in 2011. given all together, we can give up and say let these guys kill each other on both sides or say maybe we have to be more mod nest our objectives, keep the two-state solution open, so when the sides want to go through that door, they can. i think there are some practical ideas are possible. >> reporter: hisham, is that possible? >> look, american leadership is indispensable. we know that. if you leave the parties to their own devices, given fact that israel has tremendous military preponderance, strong economy, strong constitution, you will end up with two societies living side by side unequal and resentful of each other, and in a state of constant, low-intensity violence. and if you allow the israelis to continue settlement activities in palestinian territories, incorporating more palestinian lands, even when you work on the limited objectives, then you reach a point-- we may have already reached it-- whether

there will be nothing to divide. you have half a million israelis on palestinian land and if you allow the situation to continue, then it is impossible to talk about two-state solution, and you will end up in a situation where you have these two unequal societies living in a state of perpetual low-intensity violence, and that's the problem if you maintain this approach-- let's contain it for a while until it ripens. but it may be too late. >> reporter: david, given the situation now, they can't hit the long ball, as you say. can they even hit the single or the double. >> look, i don't know, and we have to try. my goal is not to contain or have a status quo but really to find a way that basically you channel the settlement enterprise into an area we already know. 80% of the settlers own 5% of the land, largely adjacent to the israeli urban areas we used to call the pre1967 border and most of the palestinian palestie

on the other side of that. we kind of know territorially where this is going and it will be a land exchange, what we call a territorial swap. both sides know basically what has to be done. i do think you can hit the single or double. i think the stakes are so high if we don't try we are consigning these people to perpetual bloodshed, and if we try to hilt the home run ball we're setting ourselves up for failure. >> reporter: hir sham giving up the settlement blocks around the urban areas seems like it would be giving up east ger use lum, and isn't the goal of establishing a capital. >> palestinians would like to have ease jerusalem as their capital. this is a palestinian position that no palestinian leaders can even entertain not having or not insisting upon that. the problem we're having here is there are structural problems in the israeli political culture. there are powerful people in

netanyahu's cabinet who are calling for annexing. it is not only the settlements. they believe the palestinians cannot accept the israeli presence or existence, and essentially, they are asking the palestinians to accept the impossible. there are forces on both sides who are maximalists now. there was always a time when you had an israeli constituency for peace, and a palestinian constituency for peace. these constituencies have been shrinking in the last few years, and you have the demonization taking place on both sides and maximalist positions on both sides. hamas lives in its own world. you have an ossified palestinian leadership and an israeli leadership that is perpetuating the status quo, unwilling or unable, not courageous enough to make initiative, given the fact that israel is the stronger party. >> reporter: and talking about the situation in israel, are there israelis who are willing to look for that single? >> yes -- >> reporter: israeli leaders. >> half of the i ca kinesset, hf

the party is discussing this. jerusalem has to be between the parties. i think there's ground rules you could set that in east ge geruzm would preserve the outcome of oa solution. the palestinians know the jewish neighborhoods will be israel and the palestinian neighborhood elizabeth palestine. so i see-- >> but you want to hear an israeli leadership articulate a position. you want to hear an israeli leader saying jerusalem should be shared, and this is our outlook and vision of eventual peace. they don't do that. they keep kicking the can down the road. >> part of the problem is you have to realize the waves of stabbings that have radicalized the situation. you have had 180 stabbing on the palestinian side that convince the israelis there is no partner, and the palestinians think there is no solution and we won't get to a solution.

>> reporter: i'm sorry, david makovsky and hisham helham, we will have to leave it there. we will be coming back to this discussion many, many times again. thank you very much. >> woodruff: next, we begin a series of reports on india's workforce. last year, the country became the world's fastest growing economy. but the benefits have eluded many of its citizens. fred de sam lazaro has our first report on one group trying to reverse that trend. it is part of his on-going series, agents for change. >> reporter: the big shopping malls may have arrived-- but in india, food, clothing and virtually everything else is still bought mostly from street vendors. they, along with construction laborers, domestics, rickshaw drivers and rickshaw pullers-- in fact, most workers in india's economy are, quite literally,

off the books, says indiana university's sumit ganguly. >> 90% of the workforce in india is in the so-called informal sector. >> reporter: it's a technical term that means a very hard life. they live from day to day. that is, if there's work on any given day, they are paid at the end of it-- less than $2 for the majority. >> these are people who have no social security provisions, who have no health care provisions, who can be hired and fired at will and yet, according to a recent credit suisse study they contribute close to 50% of india's gross national product, which is a shocking figure. >> reporter: not only are they under-appreciated, but they fall easy prey to corrupt municipal officials and policemen. the market just outside of delhi's main mosque has been here for well over 200 years. the vendors complain they're subject to regular harassment, from police demanding bribes and

from municipal authorities who conduct regular raids to evict them. >> ( translated ): they kicked us out from here in 2014, citing security reasons. >> reporter: across india's cities, vendors like imran khan carry tales of harassment-- sometimes on shaky cell phone video-- of stalls dismantled and merchandise confiscated. >> ( translated ): then finally, we went to nasvi to arbind and he said, "you have only one option, straight to court." >> reporter: nasvi, the national association of street vendors, is the brainchild of 48-year-old social activist arbind singh. "all those who were kicked out, have them come to the office tomorrow." we ran into singh in another delhi market where he was getting the familiar litany from merchants. >> in this particular market, we had gone to court for these vendors and we got a stay but despite the stay they are saying in recent days they are having some trouble from municipal authorities. >> reporter: they're still be

harassed? >> yes yes. >> reporter: for 20 years since it began, singh's group, called nidan, has organized various informal workers. in 2014, it lobbied successfully for a federal law to protect street vendors. it calls for committees to be set up to survey existing markets, establish vending zones and a permit system to regulate them. it calls for a zoning and permit system and until it's in place, no vendor can be evicted the problem: many municipal and police officials simply flout the new law, preying on a population that is poorly educated and doesn't fully understand it, or their rights. >> reporter: this 19-year-old said he'd been in business for a year, taught by a friend how to prepare this street food staple called pani puri. >> so how much do they take from you? >> who? >> the municipality people. >> nothing. i don't give any money. >> reporter: he was worried at first about reprisals, but did finally tell us he bribes the authorities about $1.50 each time they come round-- a hefty sum for people who perhaps earn only two or three times that amount on any given day. but protecting vendors like him is only the first step for nidan in helping improve their lives. the second is to improve their skills. >> reporter: he's obviously untrained, he's using his bare

hands, what do you do with him? >> first thing is to organize, so he becomes part of the organizing process. then secondly, he goes for the training. >> reporter: with help from the tourism ministry and the hospitality industry nidan has put thousands of street food vendors through training on food preparation, handling, service and storage. nidan organizes street food festivals that are growing in popularity. using street food festivals, nidan's message to vendors is that with better hygiene and food safety, their business can grow. but singh says the new economy-- geared very much to the middle class-- must begin to help the much larger number below it, to join it. >> all we need in a country like ours is equality of opportunity, i mean its not which is very much part of our constitution that there has to be equality. i mean you can get a loan for buying a car. you can't get a loan for buying a rickshaw. >> reporter: today some 350,000 people across india pay a small membership fee to belong to singh's group.

>> ( translated ): we never did know the law. they have helped us to find our voice. >> reporter: manoj kumar rane says being organized has allowed vendors in his neighborhood to assert their rights. he says there are now far fewer reports of harassment from the cops and city people, he says, but far fewer than before nidan has also started micro finance programs and encouraged members to form local coops and savings clubs. rani harbans kaur helped start this club, whose members pool their savings to make small loans. kaur, who's 40, has graduated over the years from a sidewalk stall to a brick and mortar store, thanks to a series of small loans she says she has easily repaid. >> there was an entrepreneur within herself. we just unleashed that with that access. >> reporter: and india needs to provide a lot more access and employment to its youthful population.

the median age is just 27. >> and we're talking about entire armies of young men who are unemployed or under-employed with expectations which cannot be reasonably fulfilled unless one sees a greater dispersion of jobs and wealth in india. >> reporter: most of those young workers will likely wind up fending for themselves in the informal economy. arbind singh says the social stability in this land of 1.3 billion may well depend on converting many of them into entrepreneurs. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in new delhi. >> woodruff: in his next report, fred looks at the plight of workers in a remote rural region where debt and a deadly disease trap many in poverty. fred's reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at the university of st. thomas in

minnesota. >> woodruff: finally tonight, remembering the country music legend, and one of its outlaw heroes-- merle hagard. william brangham is back with a look at his career. >> i guess i'll just always be the old country singer. the guy that sings about all the things that happen. ♪ tonight the bottle let me down ♪ >> brangham: merle haggard rose to country music stardom, singing about what he knew best-- poverty, prison, heartache. ♪ mama tried to raise me better but her pleading i denied ♪ that leaves only me to blame 'cause mama tried >> brangham: born near bakersfield, california, haggard was raised in a converted railway car-- the only home his parents could afford.

he was nine when his father died, and before long he turned to petty crime and landed in san quentin prison, where he saw johnny cash play. >> merle lived outside the law and got thrown into prison for it. >> brangham: don cusic is a historian of country music at belmont university in nashville. >> committed enough crimes to end up in san quentin. if ever there was a poster boy for prison reform, merle was exhibit a. >> brangham: haggard turned to writing his own music after his release in 1960, and eventually scored hits with the "legend of bonnie and clyde" and "sing me back home"-- which was an ode to his time in san quentin-- and to the "outlaw country" movement. ♪ and i heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell ♪ >> merle would find prison stories, he would find a single parent, a single father in holding, things fight inside of me sticking up for our country. just, he was unabashed about telling the truth. >> brangham: that came through

most famously in haggard's 1969 hit "okie from muskogee", which became a kind of conservative anthem at the height of the vietnam war. ♪ we don't take no trips on l.s.d. ♪ we don't burn no draft cards down on main street >> "okie from muskogee" was an anthem for the silent majority. it was what the ceft-- in political terms-- the creativity >> brangham: haggard later said he never intended to be taken that way, and later in life, he turned anti-war himself. he also helped pioneer so-called "outlaw country," bucking the highly polished "nashville sound." >> haggard was an outlaw, in that he demanded creative control. he didn't do what producers told

him to do. >> brangham: as his career grew, the accolades piled on, including dozens of albums and number one hits, album of the year awards-- and the country music hall of fame. in 2010, he was honored by the kennedy center and at a white house ceremony. >> in a day and age when so many country singers claim to be rambling gambling outlaws, merle actually is one. ( laughter ) >> brangham: haggard also continued performing late into life. but a long battle with pneumonia forced him off the road this year. here he is performing "sing me back home" on the pbs series "austin city limits" in 1978. ♪ the warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom ♪ i stood up to say good-bye like all the rest ♪ and i heard him tell the

warden just before he reached my cell ♪ 'let my guitar playing friend do my request' ♪ sing me back home with a song i used to hear ♪ make my old memories come alive ♪ take me away and turn back the years ♪ sing me back home before i die

he died today, on his 79th birthday. >> woodruff: later tonight on >> woodruff: before we leave you tonight an update on brazil's fight against the zika virus. the health ministry there says the number of confirmed and suspected cases of microsevenly has declined slightly. the condition causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. cases went down from 5,235 two weeks ago, and 5,092 just last week. later tonight on pbs "nova," the discovery of what scientists believe is a second viking settlement, proving the norse explorers traveled farther into south into north america than

previously thought. "nova" airs tonight at 9:00 pm eastern on most pbs stations. on the newshour online: twenty years ago, a group of inmates at the stock island detention center in key west, florida, "adopted" a family of local ducks. their efforts grew into a unique program where inmates now care for more than 150 animals, including giant rabbits and tiny horses. you can see what it looks like in a gallery by photographer kim raff. that's on our homepage. on our science page, using radioactive dust buried at the bottom of the oceans, two teams of researchers have identified the location and dates of supernovas that exploded near earth in the last 13 million years. why does this matter? these massive fireworks may have had an effect on human evolution. you can read more about the cosmic findings.

all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we talk with anita hill. her sexual harassment accusations against clarence thomas in 1991 nearly derailed his supreme court nomination and are now the focus of a new hbo movie. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln finaial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> fathom travel-- carnival corporation's small ship line. offering seven-day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through its people. more at fathom.org. >> genentech. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their

solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, national geographic channel and aruba tourism authority. morgan: i have always been fascinated by god. ♪ morgan: why do people all around the world worship their god so differently? i am setting off on a journey and i want to take you with me. ♪